Rachel Pardes Berger MD, MPH

Rachel Berger, MD, MPH is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh and chief of the division of Child Advocacy at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She attended medical school at Columbia University, completed her pediatric internship and residency and a fellowship in general academic pediatrics at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and received a Master’s in Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

In addition to evaluating children with concerns for abuse and neglect, she has spent over 20 years as a clinical researcher. Her research has focused on decreasing fatalities and near-fatalities in young children by improving the identification of suspected physical abuse using serum biomarkers, clinical decision rules, and the electronic health record. Over the past four years, she has been focused on decreasing unsafe sleep injuries and death through a multi-disciplinary collaboration in Allegheny County. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Beckwith Institute, and the Hillman Foundation. Berger has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and recently became the first child abuse pediatrician to be elected to ASCI, the American Society for Clinical Investigation. She was also the first woman to serve as the Professional Staff President for UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, a role which she held from 2017-2019.

Berger has also been involved in child abuse-related policy and served on the Pennsylvania Task Force for Child Protection and as the research lead for the Federal, Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (CEF). She is currently in her second year as a senior policy fellow for Casey Family Programs where she is focusing on decreasing fatalities and near-fatalities from child physical abuse by improving collaboration between medical professionals and Child Protective Services.